The Wemstroms: Immigration fixes and other suggestions for Trump

Thursday

Even after President Trump’s useless State of the Union address millions of Americans, including the two of us, still keep hoping that Trump can get his act together.

So what should Trump do? The easy stuff first. The Dreamers, who have been fully “vetted," should have a chance to become citizens soon, not in 12 years, which is a lifetime to 20-year-olds. We’d hate to be worried year after year that the government might change the law and we could be deported. That’s mental torture.

The wall is silly. The wall won’t keep out half of the immigrants who fly in and overstay their visas. Less than a third of immigrants living in the U.S. are Mexican. Now more immigrants come from China and India than Mexico.

We could write pages about undocumented immigrants, proving that they are an asset, not a liability. And an immigrant crime wave does not exist. As our big cities have seen an increase in foreign-born people, violent crime has actually declined. As Paul Krugman writes in the New York Times, “He [Trump] was inventing a problem that doesn’t exist, and using that imaginary problem to demonize brown people.”

Instead of ranting and raving, let’s create an accelerated path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

To slow the flow of immigrants to this country, Corporate America could help by paying fair wages and providing humane working conditions to their international workers. Apple and its subcontractor, Foxconn, could start. Trump should sign new trade treaties and maintain existing treaties with the added stipulation that they have better worker protection and more environmental regulation.

Trump wants more money for the military. But we have won only two wars (Iraq I and the Russian-Afghan war when the Taliban was our ally) since WWII. We don’t have space to list all the wars lost in the last 70 years from Korea, Cuba and Vietnam, to Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Oops, we forgot Reagan’s famous victory in Grenada.

Trump wants to take credit for military progress in Syria. We thought it was the Russians and the Kurds. Now our allies, the Kurds, are being attacked by the Turks. Trump will let the Kurds be destroyed. He wouldn’t know what to do or say to save them so he’s going to ignore their plight.

Let’s spend less money on the military and no more money for nuclear weapons. We should be destroying our nuclear weapons, not threatening to use them.

Twice in recent memory first Bill Clinton made a deal with North Korea and later Obama made a deal with Iraq. Both agreements were the first steps on the road to more peaceful relations. Both times, Congress and now Trump want to void these agreements. Not just shortsighted, but ignorant. Trump is looking for a war.

What was also upsetting about Trump’s speech were the subjects he ignored. No mention of women, civil rights, or Climate Change.

It shouldn’t amaze us but it does. That in the midst of a horrific nation-wide sexual abuse scandal, when the Feds need to step forward and take a stand, Trump is silent. The government needs to protect women and girls with new vigorously-enforced laws. And not just the individual predators, but the institutions that shielded them should be held accountable.